New wave( la Nouvelle Vague) is a term used between 1950's and 1960's by some french movie producers , critics. The work of people who embraced this trend is considered as ground-breaking.
Jean Luc-Godard
Like similar to Italian people french people were struggling with the problems came after the end of World War 2. Italy ruled by facists for 20 years and after the war in Italy, a young director's generation emerged and created the stream of new realism.
War with Holywood
After the world war 2 french movie industry got infestated by Holywood and you could see American movies everywhere. As you know french people are really like to protect their cultural heritage however in these times french movie director had trouble creating and showing their own products. In the 50's French movie industry tried to race with holywood productions with creating huge budget films like holywood did.
In 1951 something interesting happens and the magazine published by Andre Bazin named Le cahiers du Cinema becomes an anchor for all the young cinema enthusiasts in France. The magazine mostly followed the work of the Italian new realism in movie endustry and it followed the work of young french directors like Jean Renoir and Rene Clair. The young people following these directors and waves started to publish their ideas and criticism and their structural feedback in this magazine. Young enthusiasts like François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jean Luc Godard and Jacques Rivet , who will soon become the leading directors of french cinema, started to debate on the problems and solutions of cinema art in this magazine.
In the same era young directors like Alain Resnais , Agnes Varda and Jacque Demy starts to publish Arts Magazine
The young cinema enthusiasts that gathered around these two magazines creates formullas for the future of french cinema. These young generation started to know themselves with the work of the previous works of the directors. Especially Andre Bazin become a really influencal for the La Nouvella Vague era and people accept him as a beacon of hope to french cinema. They use streets as stages , they mobilized movie equipment like transportable microphones and goverment created some funding plan to support these people. So the main idea of La Nouvella Vague was creating low budget high quality movies to compete with Holywood.
Andre Bazin
New Wave Gains Momentum
In 1956 some exciting things started to happen. A low profile director named Roger Vadim started to get attention with his movie named Et Dieu Crea La Femme ( God Created Women). The movie from this young director becomes phenemonal success in the france. The movie is about a woman who searchs his sexual identity. This craftsmanship in the women character inspires other people and this women character becomes the new women type in the french cinema. Also the success of Vadim increased the trust to younger generation.
Other exciting news comes from Claude Chabrol. The interest on his movie Le Beau Serge ( Handsome Serge) encourages young cinema critics. All these exciting developments opens the way of the la Nouvelle Vague
A Bout De Souffle - Trailer
Characteristics of La Nouvelle Vague
Eventhough there are some differences between in the style and topics in every individual New wave Director , there are a lot of similarities like using humor , how they tell the story and the similar way of using technological equipment. We can list the influents like this. The movies they watched in sinematic france. Second one is was mostly Andre Bazin eventhough they don't fully agree all of his articles he played the role of the muse in this revolution in French cinema. Basin's biggest lesson was about the nature of cinema. According to Bazin cinema is not a natural topic but it is a well crafted piece of art by people.
Unlike Holywood directors New wave directors wanted to make audience realize they are watching a movie. The main location was the streets of the Paris. They used transportable cheap equipment. They don't see any problem with making their friends act in the movie to add some realism. They worked with the natural light of the streets. They liked to put quotes from previous important work of the other directors.
In the new wave movies the scenes don't act to complete the story. You can't predict what is going to happen in the next scene. Most of these movies don't end with a clear ending they can end in the most unpredictable scene. You can always see the mismatch in the characters with society.
There are a lot of characteristics to be mentioned but in some of the directors you can still see the affects of new wave even in 2017 so I will leave you the interpretation for the future movies you watch. New wave was a reneaissance for the movie industry and I really hope to see more structured media materials in the future because there aren't much satisfying things like watching a decent shocking movie.
